In A Moment
by Digitalis02
Summary: Over a century of friendship bonded them together, and in a single moment, Nikola Tesla had killed Helen Magnus.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

This is a what-if scenario that's been floating around my head for a while. Takes place during 'The Five' and goes in a different direction. Probably one more chapter after this. The italicized paragraphs indicate flashbacks. Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

* * *

In A Moment

"Nikola, this is crazy. You have clearly not thought this through. Lead abnormals? I hate to tell you this, but there are quite a few abnormals who are more than a match for you. I've seen them. They would _crush_ you. Meanwhile, you are going around killing people to make into mindless versions of a basic you! Nikola, you're mad."

"No!"

It seemed the story of his life. Witnessing so many people dismiss him and his crazy ideas. Those ideas were genius! Nikola was part-vampire, but at his heart, he was also an inventor bursting with ideas to share. Ideas that hardly anyone listened to.

They called him mad behind his back.

They sneered to his face.

All. His. Life.

And now, when Nikola thought he'd gotten the last laugh, here was yet another person calling him mad, to his face. It seemed as if he were stuck in a vicious cycle of being misunderstood, ignored, and dismissed.

Nikola's temper snapped and without thinking, his rage focused on his transgressor.

His nails elongated into sharpened claws and his eyes became bottomless depths of black.

Who was she to question him? He was Nikola Tesla! One of the greatest minds who ever lived! His genius was unsurpassed, unchallenged; his logic irrefutable. How dare she be like all the others who spurned him, who judged him, who cheated him, who pitied him and talked behind his back. What gave these people the right to call him mad, simply because **they could not understand**.

He'd had enough of these people. These ignorant fools.

Years of mockery and pity built up, of resentment for not being understood, and something inside Nikola gave way.

_"You're mad..."_

_"You're __**mad**__..."_

_"...__**mad**__..."_

With a growl, Nikola drove his hand forward, plunging his nails into soft flesh. Unseeing, blinded by the explosion of bottled emotions, caught up in a single moment of rage. He felt sickly satisfaction at finally being able to strike back at his tormentors. Nikola maniacally grinned, as if to say, 'who's laughing now?'

It felt good.

Releasing all that rage.

He took a deep arrogant breath, feeling supreme and vindicated at getting the last laugh.

Over 700 patents world-wide, officially recognized as the inventor of the radio, awards, craters, a minor planet, power plants, airports, cars and companies, were named after him, he even his own personal museum, Edison's admittance of his mistakes...

A soft gasp brought him back.

And Nikola came out of his fog of vindicated rage to glance down.

Directly into Helen's shocked blue eyes.

Looking down even further, all the feelings dredged up seconds earlier vanished in horror at the sight of his clawed hand buried in Helen's stomach, covered in warm blood.

"No..." Terror welled up in him and Nikola hastily yanked out his hand, retracting his claws, and feeling viscous crimson blood coat his flesh, forever staining the cuff of his jacket. It felt sticky as it coated his hand, sliding sickly over his skin.

Nikola's eyes were wide with fear and alarm as Helen stumbled clumsily back before dropping to the floor. "Helen!" He raced to catch her.

*

_ Nikola scowled to himself as the crowd walked away, and his hands fisted in anger at their mockery and jeering._

_ "It was a wonderful demonstration."_

_ He would always recognize her voice, out of a crowd of thousands or blind and disorientated, Helen's soft voice was imprinted forever in Nikola's mind._

_ And there she stood, a few feet away, smiling affectionately and looking heart-wrenchingly beautiful. "They mock me at every turn," he grated out. "Call me mad behind my back and pity me to my face for believing my inventions are more than just junk."_

_ "Where others see stubbornness and failure, you and I see great potential. Good minds come and go, but the great ones have always seen beyond the boundaries of today's time, beyond the known. The great ones dare to believe in the unbelievable." Helen smiled encouragingly at him with confidence in him shining from her eyes. "You are a great one, Nikola. It's what separates you from all the rest."_

_ Nikola's heart lifted and warmed at her words, at the look on her face that said he could never fail in her eyes, and he smirked. "Why Helen, you do wonders for my ego."_

_ She laughed._

_*  
_

He caught her in his arms, just barely.

There was soft surprise in her wide eyes, as if she couldn't quite believe that he had stabbed her. Had gouged a hole into her. As if she couldn't believe that one of her oldest friends dear to her heart had just done that.

Her mouth opened, but made no sound. Merely staring at Nikola.

"I can fix this, I can. Helen...d..don't worry." Nikola scrambled, but when he went to place his hand over the gaping hole in her stomach in a pathetic attempt to stop the bleeding, all he saw was his blood-covered hand.

The hand he had used to kill Helen.

"I..I didn't mean to," he gasped, pleading into her eyes, "Helen, please, you can't...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Helen..."

Her lips, paling, struggled to lift into a some semblance of a smile. They only quirked slightly. But she understood. It was in her eyes; eyes that were fading into darkness.

*

_"Make sure I get a good funeral, Helen." Nikola smirked at her._

_ Helen laughed, placing a hand on his arm and squeezing it fondly. "Only the best for one so dear to my heart." She paused, gazing up at him. "Will I see you?"_

_ "I'll be around."_

_*  
_

Her eyes fluttered before slowly drifting shut.

Nikola cried out and he gathered her tighter in his arms. "Helen! Don't!" _Don't leave me. Please, open your eyes. Forgive me this. _

His supernatural hearing picked up the bare rasping of her breath and rare tears slipped down his cheeks.

Helen's breaths slowed.

Each sluggish beat of her heart unnaturally pounded accusingly in his ears...until in one agonizingly long second, her heart's beat tapered off. One beat, two, three...

Nikola began to cry in the silence that followed.

Gathering Helen in his arms, he bowed his head, pressing his forehead against hers, and choked on his tears. He snuffled her hair, he'd always loved her curls, feeling his body tremble.

Nikola pressed desperate kisses on Helen's face, blanketing her skin with tears.

"Oh God..." Nikola shook harder as he he felt Helen's blood slick against his skin, watching it seep into the dirt. "What have I done?" he breathed. "Oh God, what have I done?"

His mindless vampire creations growled behind him, eager and hungry at the sight of fresh blood.

Helen's blood.

"No! Get away!" Nikola ordered sharply, glaring with red-rimmed eyes at his three failures. "Leave me. Leave us alone!" It was the first time Nikola had looked upon his creations with disgust and hatred as their beady eyes fixated on the pool of _Helen's_ blood. _His_ Helen.

"Mom! Oh God, mom! Get away from her!"

Mind locked in despair, Nikola only sat splintered as Helen's body was ripped from his arms by a young blonde woman. A young woman who had called Helen 'mom'.

As he stared at her through watery eyes, he noted the blonde hair, the blue eyes, just like his Helen. Nikola had been aware that Helen was pregnant and that she had frozen the egg, but for all his sources, Nikola didn't know that she had carried it to term. Helen had a daughter. A child.

A child that he had made mother-less.

His mind shattered.

"You killed Helen." John's accusing, disbelieving voice filtered through the rushing in his ears. "Nikola, you murdered Helen!"

_You murdered Helen!_

_You...Helen...murdered._

"No, I-I didn't want to," Nikola uncharacteristically stammered, stumbling to his feet. He looked down at himself and felt bile rise in his throat. His pristine suit was soaked with Helen's blood.

Ignorant to the deranged look in John's eyes and the way he advanced upon him, Nikola only saw flashes of memories.

*

_Helen laughed, and Nikola was entranced by the sunlight bouncing off her golden curls. "You're my only friend here, my first friend, Nikola. Did you know that? Thank you, for being here." Off in the distance, a bell rang._

_*  
_

He shook his head, in denial, in disbelief. "I...she...it..."

Nikola staggered back before turning and fleeing.

In the span of one afternoon, Nikola destroyed the one person he ever cared about.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Okay, so I had a flash of Helen a la 'Highlander' and as she's my favorite character, I had to do it. But there's still angst! I love angst! Thanks for reading!

* * *

Chapter Two

"Mom?" Ashley whispered fearfully, tears pooling in her eyes as she gently brushed back her mother's hair. "Mom...please..."

Ashley sat there, cradling her mother, in silence on some unfamiliar walkway in Rome that her father had brought them to before she demanded he leave.

"Mom..." Her hand clutched at Helen's cold one.

Tears began to fall and Ashley's face crumpled.

Minutes began to tick by; the longest minutes in her life.

And Helen's hand gave the tiniest squeeze.

Ashley's eyes shot open as she felt her mother violently suck in air before suddenly thrashing about. "Mom!" she cried, trying to reassure her mother. "It's okay! It's okay! You're safe! Mom, please!"

Ashley remembered the first time this had happened.

Helen had been overseeing the transportation of the lizard-like creature into a SHU cell, making sure his new home was adequate and to his liking.

It was a very tense moment, Ashley remembered. Her hand had brushed her gun more than a few times as she had watched her mother gently coax the dangerous abnormal with the large, shark-like teeth into the cell. Her mother always insisted on never treating any abnormal like an animal, but never had any personal regard for own safety.

They never talked about it. Helen, Ashley, and Henry. About what happened next and the days after.

Henry had entered, unaware, from the opposite direction and in a habitual routine, flicked on the lights. He had been doodling on his tablet.

Helen's loud scream had caused him to look up and Ashley's teenage heart to spike with fright.

The creature, startled and hating light, struck out. Its massive fist caught Helen in the face and knocked her clear against the metal container in its haste to retreat. Smeared blood painted a path as Helen slumped down.

By the time, Ashley and Henry had gotten to her, Helen Magnus was dead.

For all of ten minutes.

When her mother's dead body suddenly gasped for air, Ashley had jumped. Henry had freaked. When Helen began to thrash in disorientation, Ashley had been too thankful to do anything more than launch herself in her mother's arms, bawling, while Henry continued to freak out.

The three of them had kept it a secret.

"Ashley..."

With tears cascading down her cheeks, Ashley clutched her mother's hand and smoothed back her hair in a comforting gesture. "Y...You died on me again, mom," she sobbed quietly. "You promised never to do that again, remember? You promised. You promised you wouldn't leave me!"

Helen brushed away Ashley's tears before gingerly sitting up, staring down at the bloodied mess of her stomach. "Nikola...dear God," she muttered, now recalling what happened. Turning to Ashley, Helen pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, darling. I'm so sorry I frightened you like that. I didn't mean to break my promise. I'm so sorry." Helen consoled her distraught daughter, holding her tight and stroking her hair.

The two sat quietly, a bloody unsightly mess, with their arms wrapped around each other,crying over the events of the day, about how in a single moment, they had lost each other, but mainly thankful in their hearts that they hadn't.

*

John knelt by the blood pool and a hand trembled over it.

It seemed so unfair. Receiving his sanity back, only to lose the woman he loved in a single moment.

He clenched his jaw and anger flashed in his eyes.

Seeing the footsteps of Nikola fleeing in the sand, John stood.

And began to track his love's killer.

_*_

He rocked.

Back and forth, knees drawn up to his chest, and covered in blood.

Nikola rocked against the wall of his loft lab, feeling the rough stone wall harshly scraping his back. The heels of red hands scrubbed raw dug into his eyes, stinging from the wetness of his tears. Occasionally a sob escaped his throat that echoed in his ears while the force of them shook his shoulders.

He wept. And his tears intermingled with the blood on his hands. Hands that he had used to electrocute and tear asunder his creations as they faithfully, mindlessly, followed his stumbling walk back. Instruments of death were his two hands that gave the world radio waves; that took away the life of the woman he loved in a moment of blind rage.

Nikola rocked on the floor and teardrops of remorse dripped down his cheeks. His insides felt as if someone were squeezing the life out of him with no mercy. His lungs hurt; his heart ached. And he called himself a monster.

In the span of an afternoon that Nikola Tesla thought would bring about his greatest triumph in this world to date, he had instead wrought the greatest destruction of his life. Helen had felt so warm, her lips captured in a surprise kiss; now she was cold.

_And because I love you._

_  
A soft gasp brought him back. _

A keening sob erupted from his mouth and Nikola wailed in anguish. His tears tasted salty.

_I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. I'm so sorry. Forgive me please._

Silence condemned him.

*

_"Here." _

_  
A lace-covered card with a picture of a heart was thrust into his hand and Nikola looked up to see Helen beaming at him._

_  
"A Valentine?"_

_  
"Read it."_

_  
Flipping it open, Nikola's eyes read: 'To the man who saw me for more than just a woman, who listened to my dreams and never laughed once, who brushed away my tears at the sign of adversity, and who never fails to encourage my hopes, there will always be a special place within my heart, just for you. Yours, Helen.'_

_*  
_

Tears ran faster and a lump swelled up in his throat.

_Forgive me, love, for the sin I committed against you. _

His tears threatened to choke him. Guilt weighed his shoulders. Despair consumed him.

And Nikola wanted to die.

He loved her.

He killed her.

And now, Helen would never love him back.

She couldn't.

She was dead.


End file.
